Tuesday, April 25, 2006

In response to Jill's comment below, the photo from the previous post is by Mark Seliger and served as the cover for Rolling Stone #633 (June 25, 1992). I don't know what was wrong with Kiedis' hand in the photo. He had an infamous mtorcycle accident in 1997 which damaged his wrist and killed a tour (and album sales), but there is little published about any injury in 1992. Interestingly, the photo was taken in April, at the peak of Blood Sugar Sex Magik's success. Also to note, there are only 3 Chili Peppers on the cover. The photo below has four. What gives? The guy on the far right, I believe is guitarist John Frusciante, who left the band in May 1992, mid-tour. The Rolling Stone Cover photo was shot the month before, so they cropped him out for the June issue. Frusciante rejoined the RHCP in 1998.

3 comments:

Frusciante left because of a heroin addiction. A european documentary I saw during the years when Dave Navarro was playing for the Red Hots revealed that Frusciante wasn't battling the addiction as much as he was losing himself in it. Fortunately, Frusciante got ahold of himself to return to the group just before Californication.

Yes, I was being nice and not mentioning why he left mid-tour, but he seems to have cleaned up nicely. Many think that despite Kiedis' great vocal talent and Flea's legendary bass-playing, Frusciante is the "X" factor. The period when he left the band marked a gaping hole in the RHCP rise. The 1995 album "One Hot Minute" sold 7 million units fewer than Blood Sugar... and 10 million units fewer than Californication (stats from wikipedia). In fact, One Hot Minute featured Dave Navarro on guitar and, despite decent sales and good reviews, the RHCP do not play any of the songs from the album on tour (the exception being a Flea tune).

However-Some of us still believe that Uplift Mofo Party Plan is the best Chili Peppers album - or at least the truest Peppers album. Being the 1st it is the only with the original line-up. No Frusicante.